Knitted fabric



May 18, 1954 Filed Sept. 20, 1952 0/5 5 Adams ATTORNEYS L. S. ADAMS KNITTED FABRIC May 18, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Sept. 20, 1952 3 m M H.H cu. O /L Patented May 18, 1954 orsrcie.;

" i 2,678,552.. h y 4 .g KNITTED FABRIC LohQS.-.Adams,New,ork,.N.Y..

' Applicationseptember 20, `1952,48'eiialiltlil 310,661* femm.' (Circe-202),.-

, lll l Tmssinventionmrelates: to garments, .and :,is particularly advantageouszwhenl applied `to garments madelofa plurality `of parts or pieces, usually" two, used in combination, such as jacket and skirt, jacket" and shorts i and-thev like.`

In.,garments of this type it.1is desirable` to ypro-'- vide bot-.lr1 harmony and contrast in the` juxtaposed'rpieces. A main purposeloff the invention is to provide an arrangement in which both harmony and Acontrast are "automatically produced in aniextremely simple-rand `Lpractical manner. .in generallaccomplisheduby making` one ofJ1lthe==-pieces...from,..suitab1et-woven materiat in the usual manner, and constructing the other by knitting strips of the same material. The colors in the two pieces are necessarily the same; but the appearance of the knitted piece is substantially different, not only because of the difference `in texture, but also because of the difference in reflection of light from the intertwisted knitted strips, resulting in some instances in an apparent change of color shade.

A further feature of the invention is the production of Vvarious effects in the appearance of the knitted piece while employing the same material, thsgresult being accomplished by providing special margin constructions in the strip from which the piece is knitted. It has been found that' by pinking the margins the appearance of the knitted piece is substantially different from that obtained from plain strips having unpinked edges. The effect is also changed when theedges of the strip are provided with a suitablef binding, such 'as picot or overcast edges. f

A purpose of the invention is to provide a garment knitted from strips of woven material provided with a decorative edging, formed either from the material itself as by pinking, or otherwise physically modifying marginal portions of the strips, or by applying a decorative binding of the type indicated.

Very pleasing effects are likewise obtained by selection of various types of material, and by cutting the material in particular ways in reference to a pattern thereon. For instance, where the material has a lustrous surface, as in satin, the knitted piece has an unexpectedly different appearance, due at least in part to the fact thatthe light from the knitted piece is diffused, While the light from the piece made from fiat material is of course lustrous, much of the light being directly reflected.

Another example of the way in which unexpected eiects may be produced is found in the useV ofl materials` havinglsubstantially diiferent appearancer'on the fright and'wrong sides=,1tlie two sides. 'being blended inthe :knitted piecezf -A further desirable-.arrangement inclu'c'les the use of 'striped material: having sufficiently Anarrow stripes'so that. the fstripsecutl from l. the riraterial lengthwise of the` stripes, Vand of ,-a widthipractic'al for.,r knitted; i are"` sufficientlyA iwide to. includeto'ne or more 4cfrthe stripes; Itshasnbeenfoundithat a width of approximately a half inch isasulitable f or knitting,I and the` pattern elements? '.sucli as stripes: are :therefore .advantageously less Ethan half aninch inwidth, .prferablyllesstharre quarter of an inch.

It is also advantageous to restrict the depth of the binding or pinking, a depth between a sixteenth and an eighth of an inch resulting in a pleasing effect. The binding may be of the same shade or tint as the material, or the major portion thereof, serving to produce primarily a difference in the textured appearance of the knitted piece, especially when made from unpatterned material; or the binding may be in desirable harmonizing contrasting colors.

The invention is adapted to standard production methods, since the strips may readily be formed by slitting, pinking, hemstitching and cutting, or bound by overcasting or otherwise on standard machines; while the knitting of course may be carried out in the usual way.

Other objects, advantages and modifications will be apparent from the description of embodiments of the invention considered in connection withthe accompanying drawings in which Fig. 1 is a partly diagrammatic front view of a garment embodying the invention, consisting of a knitted jacket and a skirt, the upper portion of the skirt being indicated in broken lines and including a detailed showing of part of the skirt material from which the jacket is also made;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged face view of a section of the jacket shown in Fig. l, indicated at A in said figure;

Fig. 3 is a similar enlarged view of a similar portion of a knitted jacket made from strips of another pattern;

Fig. 4 is a face view of a swatch of the material from which the fabric shown in Fig. 2 is made;

Fig. 5 is a similar view of a swatch of material from which the fabric indicated in Fig. 3 is made;

Fig. 6 is a face view of a strip of the material shown in Fig. 4 suitable for knitting, with pinked edges; and

Fig. 7 is a face view of a similar strip of the same material, with picot edges.

The construction and arrangement of the parts shown in the drawings will be apparent from the preceding general description. It will be noted that the material shown in Figs. 4 and 5 have a pattern or stripes sufficiently narrow so that an entire stripe unit and a portion of the background is readily included in each knitting strip shown in Figs. 6 and 7. These two strips likewise illustrate the contrast which may occur between strips made from certain patterns, whichl results in accentuated contrasts and particularly the production more or less regularly arranged' contrasting areas in the knitted piece, due to the natural concentration of a strip havingV one predominant color in one portion of the knitting,-

while another strip, or another part of the same strip, with another color predominating, is prominent in an adjacent area. Areas of this type are indicated at B and C. The strips may.. of course be arranged to produce a definite knitted pattern where the pattern of the woven cloth permits this arrangement, as in the type of pattern shown in Fig. 4; butordinarily this would add too much to the time and expenseinvolved, and a pleasing variation in appearance is`produced by selection of patterns having appropriately contrasting parts without segregation of the strips.

It will be apparent that while a number of specific arrangements embodying the invention have been described, it is susceptible of a wide 4 range of variations and gives wide scope to the skill and taste of designers, while retaining the fundamental features of the invention including the basic contrast between the appearance of garment pieces made from plain woven material and that of companion pieces knitted from strips of the same material and juxtaposed in a combination garment.

I have described what I believe to be the best embodiments of-my invention. .1 do not wish, however, to be confined to the embodiments shown, but what I desire to cover by Letters Patent is set forth in the appended claim.

, I claim:

A knitted textile fabric, knitted from woven material having relatively narrow stripes and cut lengthwise of said stripes into narrow strip form,

each strip including at least one stripe and contrasting substantially in appearance with said woven material, the fabric being knit with portions of both sides of the woven material visible on both sides of the knitted fabric.

References Cited in the le4 of this patent UNITED'STATES PATENTS France Aug. 16, 1938 

